Stricter Marijuana Controls Pushed As More Kids Get Treatment For Accidental Consumption

A U.S. anti-marijuana group on Monday pushed for stricter controls amid an alarming increase in the number of children being treated for accidental pot consumption and in teens for cannabis abuse.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) reported that the number of children treated annually has shown a double-digit growth while a drug treatment chain saw an influx of teens being treated for abuse.

At least 14 children aged three to seven in Colorado were hospitalized in last year's first half for accidentally ingesting marijuana products, higher than the eight cases in the previous year and the four reported between 2008 and 2011.

Teen marijuana abuse treatment in almost a dozen Arapahoe House Denver-area facilities rose by 66 percent between 2011 and 2014.

Cannabis use among people aged 18 and above in Colorado and Washington from 2011 to 2013 rose by 3 percentage points to 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively, far from the 12-percent national average.

SAM also reported that in Colorado and Washington state, the first states to allow the recreational use of cannabis, there has been higher-than-average use and a spike in burns from butane hash oil production.

"We need a pumping-of-the-brakes on the marijuana industry," SAM's president, Kevin Sabet, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"When we have hospitalizations and burns and deaths, we need to stop many of these products from being sold," he also said.

Anti-legalization groups claim that Colorado and the Washington state have been flooded with products such as infused candies, many of which are far stronger than what might have been smoked in the 1960s.

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, its recreational use has been recently legalized in Oregon and Alaska.

Colorado health officials on Monday announced a $4-million public education campaign against the dangers of cannabis-infused products and about the law via the Internet, television, and radio.